Keynotes & Workshops

Keynotes

Not Another Social Media Keynote

PowerPoint, check. Wireless mic, check. Canned inspirational
intro story, check. Talking just long enough that there’s not much time for
questions? Checkmate!

Have you ever been to a keynote or breakout to find that the
most valuable part was the conversation bubble around the speaker afterwards?
Yep. Every. Time.

I do social media strategy. Big picture. *Your* story, not
wag-the-dog analytics chasing.

So let’s do that and cut out the whole PowerPoint talking
head thing.

First-come, first-served, we will load up your Instagram or
whatever on the big screen. I’ll then host a large group discussion/critique.
It will be like a huge, inefficient consulting session, but what makes it work
is that we are crowdsourcing strategies live. I’m a professor. That kind of
thing is what I do. Critique is awkward. Always is. But we’re going to have a
good time. The best time you ever had being told half your Twitter posts aren’t
working.

You’ll also get my strategic takeaways the way you want them
anyway, you who tweets pictures of the “good slides” during a talk, as physical
and electronic documents.

That’s the overview. Here’s the key: What if, in the end, we
can’t beat the bots?

How much social media advice have you received that really
is just about that – all the new tricks for how and when and what and how often
to post?

Social media companies make a lot of money. They do that by
selling ads, or, more precisely, by continually constraining free workaround
hacks to generate reach and making us buy ads. That means that eventually they
beat the tricks. Facebook changes its algorithm, Instagram shadowbans you for
your hashtag overuse, and on and on.

What if, instead, we stopped making content whose purpose
was to drive eyeballs to more content whose purpose was to drive eyeballs to
more content whose purpose was . . . .

This tactical grind, which also grinds down the limited
resources of the time and patience of social media marketers, is a perpetual
motion machine hunting for eyeballs. What if we stepped off the hamster wheel
for a second and thought, instead, about strategy?

Assume you’ve reached an eyeball. Someone is reading and
looking and clicking. Now, what do you want them to see?

This session will be about making social media destinations
for people. It will be about content that converts reach into engagements and
about how to build that content in keeping with your mission and brand. Could
we get people coming back to our content not because we tricked it into their
feed or even bought an ad, but because they wanted it, sought it out, maybe
even missed it while they were gone? Of course we can! But it means making some
changes.

Fixing Public Speaking Teaching

Looking for faculty development in oral communication? I focus on two major elements. First, a new model of integrating oral communication competencies across the curriculum without sacrificing content. Second, how to bring the TED lesson of revision to the staid way we teach the basic communication course.

Workshops

The One-Day Communication Reset

Messaging.

Speaking.

Listening.

Facilitating.

Negotiating.

Leading.

I take teams through an intensive, active set of experiences, focused on retraining and re "mind" ing professionals. They learn how to tap into their existing skills more effectively, and they leave with a set of new takeaways to improve their outcomes.

The full training is 6 hours. Smaller modules in each area can be delivered, an hour each.​

Can You Escape This Workshop??

Everything can be made more fun and more engaging with my Escape Room style Puzzle Boxes. Participants work in groups to unlock the clues. Meanwhile, they are reading and applying the skills we want them to learn! Click here for more information or see the workshop in action below: